Snooker World Games 2013: Joe Perry Favorite in Early Quarterfinal Contenders

The 2013 World Snooker Games has reached the quarterfinal stage.

A total of four Round 1 matches took place across July 26/27 as players aimed to secure a spot in the final eight. The tournament at Unidad Deportiva Alberto Galindo, California, has already produced a number of top competitors for the main prize.

Great Britain's Joe Perry narrowly overcame a sterling effort from Ireland's Brendan O'Donoghue in the first round. Perry currently sits at No. 19 in the World Rankings, as confirmed by Snooker.org. Although O'Donoghue was unseeded and does not have a professional ranking, his ability to challenge Perry provided more than a scare for the player who reached the European Open final back in 2001.

Perry is a decent quarterfinal prospect who will be confident of going all the way. He faces India's Aditya Mehta in a last eight tie in which Perry will certainly start as favourite. Despite only half of the quarterfinal field being confirmed at the time of writing, Perry's side of the draw outlines the 38-year-old as a likely winner of the competition.

As reported by BBC Sport, the Englishman's recent victory at the Yixing Open in China was his maiden world rankings title. He followed this huge step at a smaller tournament in Gloucester, England, and is  ready to continue his impressive form by taking the silverware in California.

O'Donoghue's performance will have grounded Perry. The players who recently beat Mark Selby 4-1 was almost humbled by a less obvious talent and will now be mentally prepared for other challengers who on paper pose less of a threat.

Mehta is currently ranked No. 74 in the world. He has a career high of No. 67 and is struggling to challenge the sport's top players. He showed impressive courage to come back from 5-3 down to beat Jimmy White 6-5 back in August 2012, while his October 2012 victory over Stuart Bingham thrust him into the limelight.

Later results haven't been so kind to Mehta. Despite equalling the best performance by an Indian player at a rankings event, his 6-0 loss to Judd Trump left plenty to be desired. Recent upsets suggest Mehta has the quality to challenge Perry, but the Englishman is in confident mood and has far greater experience when tackling various types of opponents. Mehta is yet to fully settle under the spotlight of top tier events and will once again face an uphill battle to assert himself.

Similarly, neither Thailand's Dechawat Poomjaeng or India's leading player Pankaj Advani appear to have the credentials to overcome Perry in a semifinal encounter. Ranked No. 64 and No. 73 respectively, both players offer similar resistance to Mehta. Although giant-killing is a possibility, Perry's improved confidence should see him through either clash.

The Gentleman's most difficult potential encounter is likely to be against either China's Liang Wenbo or fellow Englishman Nigel Bond. Considering this duo face each other in a quarterfinal tie, Perry's route is made a lot easier through the luck of the draw.

Make no mistake about it, the winner of Liang Wenbo/Bond will challenge Perry all the way. Even so, Perry continues to improve and shows real signs of adding to his recent trophy haul.